Projects

OHSEL represents a range of complex projects at different stages in their development. Our plans are the result of an extensive process of engagement and discussion with clinicians, commissioners, patient representatives and others.

Our initiatives are based on examples of best practice from within south east London and beyond. We aim to improve the health of people in south east London, reduce health inequalities and deliver a healthcare system which is clinically and financially sustainable.

An important part of OHSEL is NHS trusts working together to improve care and strengthen the financial sustainability of the local NHS. We are exploring every opportunity to get better value for money and the best results for our patients, making the most of resources that are under increasing pressure. Read more

We want to make sure everyone gets the care they need, when they need it. We also want to support people more to manage their health and keep themselves and their families healthy and well. So, we’re changing the way we work so that local services and organisations like GPs, pharmacists, community nurses, social care, or voluntary groups work together better, sharing information and resources. This will make it easier for people who need it to access support. Read more

We want to diagnose cancer earlier and faster and refer people more quickly to specialist cancer services. We're also aiming to improve the availability of support for people living with and beyond cancer and improve the experience and outcomes for patients. Promoting healthy lifestyle choices is a priority and we also aim to support people at the end of their life to have more control over their care. Our plans include developing better support for carers. Read more

Planned care is treatment that is planned in advance, such as an operation that is booked on a certain date. We aim to make care more efficient and improve patient experience and outcomes. Standardising some elements of care and getting staff and services to work more closely together in some areas is also planned. We want to make better use of the diagnostic services and facilities available in south east London, to speed up diagnosis, including rapid access to those who need more urgent tests. Read more

We know some of the people who access urgent and emergency care could be seen in other settings, such as by a GP or in primary care. Many emergency admissions could be avoided with better care planning and on-going support. People tell us that it can be hard to access alternative services, and it can be hard to know which service to use. Read more

We aim to provide support closer to home for families - to help keep children physically and emotionally well - and more joined-up health and care services that are easy for patients and their families to understand and navigate. We want to make the right services easy to access first time when people need care and other support, and we want to achieve shorter inpatient stays on specialist children’s wards and get patients back to home/school as soon as possible. Another priority is making transition into adult services more straightforward for young people with long-term conditions. Read more

We want women to have access to high quality maternity services close to home before and after birth. We also plan to support women to have a normal birth, in the right location for them, with as little medical intervention as possible.We think the standard should be midwife-led maternity care for every woman, with consultant-led support at hospital when necessary, and teams of highly trained staff with different skills delivering high quality, kind, safe and effective care. We also want to provide better lifestyle support to help ensure the best health outcomes for mother and baby. Read more

People with mental health problems receive poorer physical health care, and in south east London serious mental illness reduces a person’s life expectancy by 15-20 years. Someone with serious mental illness is also three times more likely to attend A&E and almost five times more likely to be admitted as an emergency.

We want to stop treating the mind and body separately. If someone becomes unwell, we want our services to assess and treat mental health disorders or conditions on a par with physical illnesses. For this to happen we need mental health services to become more integrated in all our health and care services. This is why improving mental health care is embedded in all of our projects. Read more

We are working with NHS England and our NHS partners in south west London to support a review of specialised services across the whole of south London. The objectives of the review are to make sure that specialised services in south London deliver the best quality care, offer people timely access to care, are efficient and effective in the way they are provided and are sustainable in the future – with the right mix of clinicians and support staff offering high quality care from the most appropriate locations. Read more

South east London is committed to transforming care for people with learning disabilities (LD) and autism as part of a national programme of system-wide change to enable more people to live in the community, with the right support, and close to home. Read more

We aim for the NHS in south east London to be paper-free by 2020 and to use technology to give patients more control over their day-to-day care. We also want to make better day-to-day use of data at the point of care and analyse health and social care data to support population health planning, effective commissioning and research. Read more

Our workforce strategy aims to review and redesign our workforce to help address these challenges and deliver new models of care and ways of working. We want to make the best use of the staff we have, working to support them and develop careers that make south east London a good place to work. Read more

We are starting to work together across organisational boundaries better so that we can share our estates. We want to make sure that, as far as possible, services are in the right place, and in buildings which are big and flexible enough to accommodate health and care needs now and in to the future. Read more